News

Giants win features many oddities

By Alex Pavlovic apavlovic@mercurynews.com

Posted:
09/01/2014 02:20:22 PM PDT

Updated:
09/01/2014 10:48:06 PM PDT

DENVER -- Santiago Casilla suffered a serious strain of his right hamstring while sprinting to first base late in a game May 21, and the next day he was put on the disabled list. The record books, however, will always say Casilla recorded a save in a Giants win May 22.

That was one of many quirks to pop up Monday when the Giants and Colorado Rockies resumed a game that was suspended 102 days earlier by a storm at Coors Field. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the record keeper for Major League Baseball, the entire game goes in the books May 22, so while a 4-2 Giants win gave them 20 victories in May, it did not extend the six-game winning streak they were riding when they flew to Denver on Sunday night.

Bochy had to replace Tyler Colvin and Brandon Hicks, both of whom were in the lineup May 22 but have since been designated for assignment. Matt Duffy started in place of Hicks, so his stats page will list May 22 as his big league debut, well before the date (Aug. 1) his contract was first purchased from Double-A Richmond. The same holds true for second baseman Joe Panik, who was 1 for 3 for the Fresno Grizzlies on May 22 and grounded out in a pinch-hit appearance when the Giants resumed that day's game. Travis Ishikawa wasn't in the Giants' plans when he had two hits and three RBIs for the Grizzlies on the original game day, but he came off the bench Monday to provide an RBI single.

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The strangest line belonged to catcher Andrew Susac. Bochy double-switched to get Jeremy Affeldt into the game in place of David Huff, who was pitching when the rain came in May but is now a New York Yankee. The move pushed Buster Posey to first and put Susac, who wasn't called up until July 26, into the lineup.

"This kid wasn't even close to being here when the suspended game happened," Bochy said of Susac. "But he got us going."

Susac led off the eighth with a single and scored the go-ahead run on Hunter Pence's double. The hit and run now go down as the first of each for Susac, who has 13 hits and six runs in 19 appearances since July 26.

"I have two first hits -- yeah, it's weird," he said. "It didn't even trigger in my mind that I would be playing my first technical game."

Bochy chose Affeldt to "start" because the Rockies were going to pinch-hit and the lefty is comfortable against left-handed and right-handed hitters, but also because he has made 42 career starts.

"I thought the preparation would bring back some good memories for him," Bochy said.

The Rockies had to make plenty of changes, too. When the game was delayed, Michael Cuddyer was on first base and Troy Tulowitzki was coming to the plate. Both sluggers are now on the disabled list, so Josh Rutledge pinch-hit and former Giant Charlie Culberson took first base. In their hours of discussions about the suspended game, Giants coaches figured the new runner might take off, and Culberson did in fact break before Affeldt could even throw a pitch. Affeldt made a pickoff throw, but Culberson stole second ahead of Posey's throw.

Affeldt got four outs before giving way to Sergio Romo, who would have closed out a lead in May but lost that role shortly after the first 5﻿2/3 innings of the game were played. Casilla worked through trouble in the ninth to pick up a save that felt like his 14th but goes down as his second.

Not all the peculiarities were positive ones. The win means the Giants were actually 30-18 after May 22, and thus when they lost their lead in the National League West, it was a 10-game advantage they blew, not 9½.